The National Geographic Polar Fund is inspired by Arctic Tale, the feature release by National Geographic Films and Paramount Classics. The National Geographic Polar Fund supports research, conservation, and education projects designed to foster greater awareness around polar and climate science, including climate, sea ice and hydrology, terrestrial and marine habitats and species, and human systems, spanning both poles. Activities supported include scientific expeditions and conservation projects, educational activities, and outreach awareness campaigns.
Walrus and pup lie on ice in the freezing waters of the Arctic. Photograph by Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Films
The Polar Fund builds on the Society's strengths of more than 117 years supporting global scientific fieldwork and many of the first polar expeditions. As National Geographic works to inspire people to care about the planet, understanding the conditions at the poles—the extreme outposts of our world—is critical to our collective future. These noted examples represent the type of multidisciplinary projects the Society will continue to support:
Gretel Ehrlich: As an acclaimed nature writer and filmmaker, Ehrlich studies the culture of Arctic peoples—their hunting traditions, shamanic and ceremonial practices, and languages and legends—and how climate change is affecting their way of life.
James Balog: Balog uses photography to unveil the complex relationship between humans and the environment. His project, "Extreme Ice Survey," will produce a multi-year photographic record that captures the process of climate change and glacial retreat, and illuminates the consequences of global warming.
Joel Berger: Working in the Western Hemisphere's last remaining truly wild ecosystems—those of the Canadian Arctic—Berger is documenting the sensitivity of Arctic species to both climatic alteration and human intrusion, and creating a basis for minimizing long-term ecological damage due to trade and human visitation.
A Polar bear's head pokes out of the water by an iceberg. Photograph by Arctic Bear Productions
About Arctic Tale
From National Geographic Films, the people that brought you
March of the Penguins and Paramount Classics, the studio that brought you
An Inconvenient Truth,
Arctic Tale is an epic wildlife adventure that explores the vast world of the Great North. The movie tells the story of a walrus pup and a polar bear cub on their life's journey from birth to adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness. Once an almost perpetual winter wonderland, the walrus and the polar bear are losing their beautiful icebound world as it melts from underneath them. Queen Latifah is the storyteller of
Arctic Tale, and the movie features music from Ben Harper, Brian Wilson, Aimee Mann, and The Shins.
National Geographic Society Development Office
1145 17th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
U.S.A.
Telephone
800 373 1717 (U.S. and Canada only)
+ 1 202 862 8638
Email
givinginfo@ngs.org
Polar Fund
